Topic 8: Sustainability (HL)

8.1 Sustainable Development

NOD:

• All design development stages should be approached in a holistic way in order to satisfy stakeholders.
• A balance of aesthetics, costs, social, cultural, energy, material, health and usability considerations must exist in order to be able to develop sustainable products.

TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE SUSTAINABILITY (TBL)
A measuring framework used to measure success in performance which incorporates social, environmental and economic issues.

• Environmental (planet) - ecosystem integrity, biodiversity, carrying capacity.
• Economic (profits) - growth, development, productivity.
• Social (people) - cultural identity, empowerment, accessibility, stability, equity.

DECOUPLING
Separating the use of natural resources and effects on the environment from economic growth.
Negative environmental impact is the cost of obtaining goods.

The world is running out of resources and therefore we must think of using less resources and materials more productively and create products which are of the same quality.
Doing more with less and maintaining the social benefits with less impact on the environment.

Increased resource consumption of finite world resources is a problem.

INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL LAWS
How international and national laws encourage companies to focus on something other than shareholder value and financial performance.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING
Benefits of sustainability reporting for governments, manufacturers and consumers.

PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP
Product stewardship examples include organic foods, genetically modified food, green cotton, forest stewardship and bio-plastics.



8.2 Sustainable consumption

NOD:

• Products, services and systems are developed and design to satisfy the basic needs of life.
• Sustainable consumptions requirements are met by minimizing the use of natural resources, toxic materials and waste including pollution and emissions during all stages of the product's life cycle.

CONSUMER ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainable design and production allows sustainable consumption.
People have different attitudes towards sustainability and environmental protection and can be classified accordingly.

ECO-LABELLING AND ENERGY LABELLING SCHEMES

• Consider eco-labelling and energy labelling schemes from different country contexts.

Eco-labels and energy labels are used to mark products that have satisfied a specific scheme's criteria in sustainability in terms of energy consumption and use of natural resources, etc.

 

Different organizations world wide have different criteria and by fulfilling these criteria and having these labels on products, designers can show consumers that the product was designed and manufactured sustainably according to the criteria set by the organization associated with that specific label.



CREATING A MARKET FOR SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS
When creating a market for sustainable products designers need to consider:

• pricing considerations - what prices will these products have?
• stimulating demand for green products - do people want these products?
• production of green products - how will it be produced sustainably?

Eco-strategies can be used in order to help facilitate the factors above in creating a new market. Organizations can consider extension methods of the product life cycle to ensure that consumers use their products for longer periods of time, or consider eco-friendly packaging.


PRESSURE GROUPS

• Advantages and disadvantages of consumer and environmental pressure groups for the user, manufacturer and designer.
• How pressure groups exert influence for changes on these issues and support or undermine development of specific technologies.

Environmental pressure groups can have an effect on the product cycle and market as their opinions on environmental issues can press changes in the production and development of products. This includes the development of specific technology such as GM food production.

Advantages of consumer and environmental pressure groups:

• Designers who have green products can be given widespread support.
• Consumers can be aware and rely on information provided by these groups, increasing their consumer power for various products.
• Manufacturers can 

Disadvantages of consumer and environmental pressure groups:

• Designers would have to work under constraints, considering environmental effects the product could have throughout its life cycle.
• Consumers may be faced with more expensive goods and forced to by only eco-friendly products.
• Manufacturers may be limited in the materials that they can use as they would have to be sustainable.

LIFESTYLE AND ETHICAL CONSUMERISM
When ethics comes into design, things such as fair trade, product testing on animals and more come into play.
Designers have to work within limits to ensure that ethics is considered in their work.

IMPLICATIONS OF TAKE-BACK LEGISLATION
for designers, manufacturers and consumers

Reasons for Take-back legislation:

Manufacturers were responsible for the environmental impacts their machinery and facilities had.

• Costs from preventing pollution are reflected in the prices of products.
• Impacts on the environment throughout the product life cycle was ignored.

Environmental impacts from usage and disposal (end-of-life stage) of the product.

• Pollution emissions from automobiles.
• Toxic waste from the disposal of certain products (eg., electronics, etc.)

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
To include the environmental impacts of the product throughout its life cycle from use to disposal in the pricing of the product.

• Manufacturers are responsible for all environmental impacts their product has throughout its life cycle.

EPR Regulation Examples:

• Emission and fuel economy standards
• Take-back requirements

Originally, there was focus on environmental impacts only during extraction of raw materials and manufacturing but EPR meant that manufactures are responsible for environmental impacts during use and disposal of the product as well.

Extraction of raw materials -> Manufacturing -> Use -> Disposal

Product Take-Back Legislation

Manufacturers are responsible for collecting and recycling their products at the end of its life cycle.
Costs are reflected on the price so consumers can make 'informed decisions'.

Goals:

• Shift waste management costs to the manufacturers and producer.
• Reduce volume of generated waste.
• Increase used of recycled material.

8.3 Sustainable design

NOD:

• Completing a life cycle analysis and considering eco-design for a product, service or system is essential for sustainable design.
• Development to minimize the environmental impacts identified from the life cycle analysis is then achieved by the designer.
• It is essential to consider sustainability from the very beginning of the process.

GREEN DESIGN VS. SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

The differences between green design and sustainable design.

What is green design?
Green design focuses on reducing the environmental impacts a product has in the short-term so that an aspect of the product has less impact on the environment compared to another product of the same kind.

A product has a incorporated green design would be more environmentally friendly than the same product that has not considered green design. This could be its ability to be recycled, energy consumption or pollution emitted from use.
(eg. a low energy rating kettle, an electric-powered hybrid car.)

What is sustainable design?
Sustainable design focuses on ensuring that that product has very little to no environmental impacts throughout use in the long-term.
Its concerned with satisfying human needs without compromising the planet's accessibility to resources.

Products that have considered sustainable design are a alternative of an existing product and can perform the exact same task but would be completely sustainable using renewable materials or relying only on renewable energy resources.

(eg. solar cookers)

TIMESCALE
Comparison of timescale between green design and sustainable design.

Green design and sustainable design have a great difference in timescale.

Sustainable design has a long timescale, creating problems during the research and development phase of the design process due to cost constraints making the task unachievable.

Solutions for sustainable design are therefore difficult to implement on a large scale while green designs are simply a 'green' version of the existing product.

FIVE PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN - DATSCHEFSKI
The five principles should be considered and understood to approach sustainable design, however, only some principles will be applicable to certain products.

Cyclic - made from organic materials that can become compost or minerals that can be recycled.
Solar - uses only renewable energy resources that can be replenished and is safe.
Safe - all emissions (air, water, land, space) are safe and do not harm other organisms physically or chemically and can become 'food'.
Efficient - required 90% less energy, materials or water than equivalent products.
Social - manufacturing and use complies with human rights and justice.


8.4 - Sustainable Innovation

COMPLEXITY AND TIMESCALE OF SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION
Sustainable innovation involves the cooperation of various stakeholder groups such as the government or the manufacturers and focuses on 'socio-technical systems intervention' as opposed to merely just improving a product.

The economy can change and the large timescale means that it can be difficult to maintain. It is also difficult to implement as it is a complex concept.

TOP-DOWN AND BOTTOM-UP STRATEGIES
Examples of top-down and bottom-up strategies and the advantage and disadvantages for consumers/users.

GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN INNOVENTION
Government intervention includes regulation, education, taxes and subsidies.
Changing political scenes and therefore changing government policies can become a problems for designers, however government

• regulation - setting rules to limit environmental issues from undesirable technologies.
• education - providing information and guidance to consumers in sustainable product and service choice
• taxes - to penalize technology which damages the environment and influence consumers to choose sustainable products and services.
• subsidies  - to stimulate and support sustainable innovation.

MACRO ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY
How macro energy sustainability can be influences through international treaties and energy policies, instruments for change and disincentives, and national systems changing policy when government leadership changes.

MICRO ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY
How micro energy sustainability can be influenced by the role of the government in raising awareness, changing attitudes, and promotion of individual and business action towards energy sustainability.

ENERGY SECURITY
How energy security can be influenced by energy demand/supply trends and forecasting, demand response versus energy efficiency and smart grids.